Bottom manway cover for oil cracking stills



June 27, 1933. v A. T. DUDLEY BOTTOM MANWAY COVER FOR OIL CRACKING STILLS Filed Aug. 2, 1929 Patented June 27, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ANDREW T. DUDLEY, 01 PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR' TO THE TEXAS COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE BOTTOM MANWAY COVER FOR 011. CRACKING STILLS Application flled August 2, 1929. Serial No. 383,003.

The present invention relates to closures flange member 2 drilled to receive an approfor bottom manways in vertical vessels and priate number of bolts 3 which serve to sehas for its object to provide a bottom manway cure an appropriate manway cover 4 thereto. cover which is suitable to effectively and safe- The manway cover 4. is preferably provided 5 1y close the large bottom opening of a vertiwith a ground gasket portion 5 having a tacal pressure still such as is emplo ed in the pered or spherical face which fits evenly pyrolitic cracking of oil and w ichv is so against seat 6 in the bottom of the vessel 1. mounted as to permit its ready opening and A drain line 7 is secured into the manway closing in spite of its great weight and the cover having a slidable flange 711 for secureserve conditions under which it is employed. ment to a companion flange (not shown) on a In operations where elevated vessels of drawofi line (not shown). heavy construction, having ,appropriately A lug 10, integral with or secured to the heavy covers for the openings, are employed edge of flange 2, is bored to loosely hold a. it is extremely diflicult and awkward to hanthreaded pin 10a having a nut 10b and a dle such covers manually when removing or Washer 100. The lower end of the pin- 10a is replacing themas occasion demands. Chain rigidly secured to a lug 11 which is provided and other forms of rigging intended to faciliintegral with or secured to the edge of mantate the handling of these heavy covers have way cover 4. been used from time to time but they have A geared arrangement is shown in Fig. 4 been slow and the covers have usually been for swinging covers which may be too heavy hinged at one side and arranged to. drop for one or two men to handle. Here the parts downwardly thus requiring more than one are similar to those shown in Fig. 2 except man or a chain hoist to swing them back into that the pin 10a is slightly longer and a bevel place. gear 10d is non-rotatably but slidably mount- The present invention is so effective that it ed on the pin 10a. A companion bevel gear not only overcomes all of the objections 10c rigidly mounted on a shaft 10 which oflered to former handling arrangements but may be rotated either mechanically or man-- in addition reduces labor requirements to a ually, serves to rotate the gear 10d to swing minimum. the cover around.

These and other objects of my invention may may be better understood from the following description and, the accompanying drawing of a preferred embodiment of the invention in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention and constituting an embodiment thereof.

Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of the invention also constructed in accordance with the invention and constituting an embodiment thereof.

Fig. 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of Fri. 2.

ig. 4 is a fragmentary view in elevation of the invention showing gears for swinging the cover.

Referring now to the drawing a vertical cylindrical vessel 1,1:- capableof withstand. ing considerable pressure, is provided with a manway opening at the bottom having a In operation one set of nuts are removed from stud bolts 3 and the manway cover 4 and the gasket 5 is unseated by rotating the nut 10?), which rests upon the Washer 100 and the lug 10. 1 The actual amount of movement required in unseating the cover is governed by the thickness of the flange 2, i. e. it must be enough so that the gasket 5 will be slightly below the bottom of the flange 2. Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 illustrate the manway cover unseated and resting upon the lug 10. The cover 4 and the gasket 5 supported by the pin 10a and nut 10?) now resting upon the lug 10 may be swung around, manually or mechanically, to uncover the manway opening as illustrated by the dotted lines in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Obviously the invention may be given other forms than those illustrated and described without limiting its spirit and scope therefore it is desired that it be limited only by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination of a pressure still having a bottom manway with an eccentric pivotal su port capable of a limited vertical axial ad ustment, a manway cover having a ground gasket portion adapted to extend a short distance into the manway cover when closed and a multiplicity of removable fastenings in circular spaced relation for securing the cover in place, the arrangement being such that the manway cover by its own weight can be'lowered to open the manway by the limited axial adjustment of the eccentric pivotal support sufiiciently to permit the cover to be easily swung in its plane in either direction to uncover the manway opening without lowering it beyond the distance necessary to clear the gasket.

2. The combination of a pressure still havin a bottom manway, a cover having a conica gasket portion adapted to tightly close said manway, a row of removable fastenings disposed in circular spaced relation for tight- 1y securing the cover to the still when the manway is closed, a swiveled support disposed outside the row of fastenings capable of limited vertical axial adjustment to open the cover by. its own weight, after disengage ment by the fastenings, sufliciently to permit the cover to easily swing in its plane in either direction to uncover the manway opening without lowering it beyond the distance necessary to clear the gasket and to support the cover in a seating position for engagement by said fastenings.

support capable of a limited vertical axial adjustment arranged to detach the cover by its own weight when loosened and to raise the cover in seating position when tightened, and

a geared mechanism for mechanically operating the pivotal support to rotate the cover in its plane to uncover the manway opening when said cover is disengaged by the fastenings and in a lowered position by said axial adjustment.

4. The combination of a pressure still having a bottom manway, a cover having a conica gasket portion adapted to tightly close said manway, a row of removable fastenings disposed in circular spaced relation for tightly securing the cover to the still when the manway is closed, a single vertical pin disposed outside the row of fastenings and carried by a portion of the still for supporting the weight ofthe cover and permitting pivotal movement thereof in its own plane after 1 ANDREW T. DUDLEY. 

